Daggers of the Republic: A Romani AAR

[johnhughthom]

Daggers of the Republic

Seven men sat around the small fire, all about them hundreds of similar fires lit up the Samnium hills. They were Hastatus, the youngest of the Roman heavy infantry, and few of them had seen battle before. Only Aulus Drusus, decanus in charge, he had been at Beneventum a few years previous, and had "seen the elephant" as the saying went among the men. He watched the man next to him, Curius Camillus, polishing the bronze chestplate he was so proud of. None of the other men had much armour, Camillus' father was wealthy, almost rich enough to join the equestrians, and the young man resented not being with the cavalry. "You're nearly as bad as those Greeks in Tarentum, Camillus," said Drusus, "real men don't need to hide behind armour in battle. Skill is what keeps you alive, not steel." Camillus smiled, "You can go into battle armoured with your pride and sense of superiority all you like Drusus, I shall go in with real armour. Lets see who lasts longest." Chuckles around the campfire, they all knew who would last longest, armour or not they thought Camillus a pampered fool who would panic at the sight of blood.

The final member of the contubernium approached stealthily. Rufus Florens was from a farm outside of Rome, seen as something of an uncultured country bumpkin by the others his foraging skills nonetheless came in useful. They all eyed him eagerly to see what he carried. "Well?" asked Camillus, "What did you catch?" Florens smiled, looked around warily, then threw two rabbits to Drusus. "Good job Florens." he said. He knew catching the animals was not the hard part, getting them back to the group without a superior confiscating them was the difficulty. More than once Florens had lost a prized catch to a greedy Equite or Princips, he knew now to be wary on route back to camp.

As the meat was cooked the men greedily grabbed the meat, the smell would waft through the camp and they needed to eat quickly. Drusus saw that Tullius Tullius, youngest member of the group at barely sixteen summers sat back and let the others take it all. The boy was small and nervous, Drusus worried how he would react in battle. In training he fought defensively, showing little aggression and he rarely joined the banter within the group. As he watched the boy looked nervously around him, this was Samnite territory. The name still had the power to strike fear into the hearts of weak minded Romans.

Papius Dio also watched the boy, amused at the youth's fear despite having five thousand fellow Romans surrounding him. "You know," he began. "Just over yonder hills lie the Caudine Forks. Back in our grandfathers time the Samnites defeated two legions there and forced them to walk under the yolk." Tullius, sat mouth agape, looking in the direction Dio had pointed. "We got our revenge as you well know Dio," said Drusus. "The Samnites are our servants now, nothing more. The Greeks will be the same by the years end." "Hmm, I bet those two Consuls said something similar to their troops as they were leaving Rome fifty years ago." Replied Dio, looking at Tullius who was becoming more pale by the minute.

At that a horn sounded over the camp. It was time to extinguish their fires and retire for the night. There was another forty miles to Tarentum, they would reach the city within two days and the seige would begin. The men pulled their thin blankets over themselves and slept out in the open, they had no tent to keep them dry but all dreamt of a warm house awaiting them in the Greek city with a solid roof. And perhaps a cellar with some wine.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Oooh....Camillus should be a bit more respectful to his superior Drusus, or he could find himself responsible for filling in the used latrine trench before breaking camp in the morning!

Great writing!

[johnhughthom]

Three days later all eight men watched the city as they marched in file, swinging to the right to enter the battleline in the correct position. Nobody expected the Greeks within to accept the invitation to battle, but these things had to be done. They stood with the rest of the army for four hours in the late morning and early afternoon that day, before the order to return to camp was given. Drusus left to meet their centurion as the camp was being assembled for the night, he returned a few hours later to let his men know what would be happening tomorrow. "Some of the residents of the city are tired of their foreign overlords, the King we kicked out of Italy has abandoned them and they realise we are the true power in Italia. The gates will be opened tomorrow, we will enter the city and kill the garrison, the population are to be spared, we come as liberators not conquerors."

"Nice speech, did the centurion use that one on you?" mocked Camillus. "No, I came up with it all on my own. Thought you might need some words to back up your pretty armour before the battle." retorted the decanus. The others laughed at Camillus being put in his place. "Right, get some sleep, it'll be a long day tomorrow."

Morning came, the sun high in the sky, not a cloud in sight. The army wheeled into position as they had the previous day and waited. And waited. Drusus had been told the gates would be opened by a group of locals who planned to overpower the guards, but nothing happened as the sun reached it's high point and then started it's descent. Finally the Romani heard shouts and screams from the gatehouse and the gate started to swing open. Before it was even half open the centurion ordered the Hastati forward and they all charged. Drusus watched as Camillus and Dio raced each other to reach the gateway first. Tullius started to lag behind and Drusus stopped and hauled the boy on. "Move!" he yelled in Tullius' ear. More frightened by the danger he knew than the mysterious dangers behind the gate the boy ran forward.

Dio reached the gatehouse first and two men leaped out at him, swords drawn. He batted away the blow from the first, but the second seemed certain to run him through. Camillus jumped in front of the attacker and the blow glanced of his breastblate, knocking Camillus to the ground. Florens took advantage and ran the Greek through. The first Greek was killed by Justus Durus, a burly teenager with a shock of red hair. The rest of the gatehouse guard had been killed by the townsmen, who also lay scattered through the gatehouse. It had clearly been a brutal fight to uproot the defenders. The rest of the Hastati rushed through the gate behind Drusus' group.

They met the psiloi, the lowest rank of the Greek defenders sent forward as the richer men cowered within the city streets. These men were unarmoured with slings, javelin and knifes for weapons. As Drusus moved toward them he noticed Tullius fall behind, he grabbed the boy and threw him forward toward the Greeks. Straight into the path of a javelin which went through the lads throat. He collapsed pulling at the wooden shaft in his neck, blood splashing all around him. The mass of men behind him pushed Drusus forward and he lost sight of the dying boy. He took his anger out on the men in front of him, imagining each man he faced to be the one who's javelin killed Tullius. In his rage he killed four men before the Greeks started running from the Romani infantry.

Drusus and the rest of the Hastati chased down the fleeing psiloi, killing them all before they could hide in the city streets. They had no idea where they had to go, the rest of the army had moved into the city to engage the bulk of the Greek garrison. Drusus gathered his men and battered down the door of a dishevelled hovel. An old woman with a a baby huddled in the corner, Septimus Levinius, who constantly bored them all with stories about the year his father had been Plebeian Aedile, grabbed the woman and hauled her out of the hut. The six men sat on the floor, their sword arms aching and more than one began to shake. Florens entered a few minutes later with arms full of wood and began to get a fire going. They sat in silence around the fire, nobody wanting to speak first. "Thanks for the help back at the gate Camillus, you too Florens." Dio finally said. Silence from Florens, a non-commital grunt from Camillus. Levinius looked around the room, "Wheres Tullius?" Silence. "Oh."

The door flew open and all seven men jumped to their feet, swords drawn. A heavily armed Roman officer strode in, glanced at the Hastati then took in the shack. "This definitely the place?" he asked somebody outside. Obviously getting an answer that indicated it was he looked around again. His eyes fixed on a loose wooden board the rest of them had missed. He strode forward and kicked the board as hard as he could, there was a loud scream from within the tiny compartment and a filthy man of indertimate age crawled out. The officer looked at him in disgust, "The Greek King can't help you or your friends now. You are going to pay for what happened at Rhegium." He grabbed the man and threw him out the door, as he left he turned to the soldiers, "You eaten?" Drusus shook his head. "Caius," he shouted. "Have food sent to these men. Some wine too."

"Well," said Camillus as they all sat down again. "This soldiering lark is turning out to be quite fun."

[johnhughthom]

The Po Valley Campaign

Part one: Bononia

The Roman army spent three months quartered in Tarentum, helping keep order as the new regime was ushered in. The barracks the Greek defenders had occupied was too small to hold an entire legion so many of the men had to find their own living quarters. Drusus' men stayed in the shack they had taken over, the old women hadn't come back, she probably knew she would have been executed for harbouring the traitor from Reghium. A few weeks into the occupation news came that Legio II had stormed and taken Rhegium, bringing the whole of southern Italia under Roman dominance.

The Greek armoury was looted and many Roman soldiers equipped themselves with superior arms and armour, Rufus Florens looted an ornate breastplate and spent days polishing it in mockery of Camillus. Papius Dio took a long sarissa spear much to the amusement of Camillus, "You're going to stand out with that aren't you? Hundreds of Hastati with our shortsword and one long spear sticking out!" "Very droll," replied Dio, "I'm not going to fight with it, it would look good hung on a wall at home."

They marched north and met up with Legio II returning from Rhegium, the armies camped and over the next two weeks disbanded as the citizens returned to Rome and the allies to their own cities. For the next two years Drusus' requested the same men for his conturbenium, they were attached to Legio I in southern Italy and saw little action as the newly pacified cities of the region seemed content to have the illusion of indepence. Legio II was stationed in the north, south of the Po valley with it's large Celtic population, and constant raiding of the farms and villages of the region meant they were constantly on the move, chasing down small bands of bandits. Grain shipments to Rome were affected and there were public demonstrations at the lack of food, the Senate decided to act and in early 268 the decision was taken to send both legions north to bring the Celtic raiders under control.

The first target was the village of Bononia, the home of the tribe behind most of the raiding. It was a small insignificant village in comparison to Roman cities, it could, however, be used as a base to project Roman power in the region. The two legion army marched north quickly and reached the village in less than a week, the enemy had assembled a large force. Defeating this would be a real show of Roman strength, and the Celts would be unable to recover from such a defeat, the region would fall under Roman dominion.

As at Tarentum the Roman army swung right within sight of the settlement and moved into position, from his position on the right flank Drusus could see little. The skirmishers at the front of the army obscured most of his view, all he could see the dust from the Celtic cavalry as they moved into position.

There was a loud cheer from the left, and Drusus looked to see a group of Celts approach the left flank. He could see nothing of the actual fighting. Cornelius Nervi, who had taken Tullius' place, asked what was happening. "We're in a batttle." replied Drusus. "You'll know soon enough." advised Dio.

Then from the right they heard the galloping of cavalry as they joined the main Celtic army. "Not quite like Tarentum, eh sir?" "No," replied the decanus. "At Beneventum I stood listening to men die for three hours before I actually joined the fighting, just remember don't move until you hear the order."

More cheers from the left, a volley of pila over the head of the skirmishers. Clash of metal, cheers, screams and incoherent yells. Some of the men shifted nervously, not knowing what was happening was much more frightening than having a thousand naked Celts running at you. "Hold steady!" called the centurion.

Suddenly the skirmishers started to run past the Hastati. "Hold position!" called the centurion. "What's happening sir?" asked Levinius, "Have we lost?" "No, they're out of javelins. You don't expect them to fight with their bare hands do you?" "Oh, right." replied Levinius, embarassed by his obvious fear. As the skirmishers retreated the Hastati found themselves at the front of the battle line. Suddenly it was all very real that they were in a fight.

On the left there was more activity as heavily armoured Celtic cavalry galloped to attack the flank. Roman heavy cavalry moved forward to meet them. "Idiots," said Drusus, "allowing themselves to become isolated like that."

"Hastati, release pilum!" came the cry. Drusus men were closest to the Celtic cavalry and turned the throw their spears into the back of the heavy horsemen. The main battle, to the right of their position was getting more heated by the minute.

"Hastati, face forward!" came the call. Drusus and his men moved away from the cavalry fight to face forward. Just in time as a group of light cavalry charged into the Hastati.

The cavalry were isolated man by man and pulled from their horse and killed. It had been suicidal for light cavalry to charge the Roman lines unassisted. The Celtic infantry then moved forward to attack the Roman lines. "Hastati, look left!" came the call. "Release pilum!"

"Move forward!"

Drusus and his men thrust themselves into the thick of the battle, the naked Gaesatae were their target and the Hastati charged them with reckless abandon. More than one of the Celts fought back with pila lodged into their bodies, giving Drusus a vivid flashback to Tullius trying to remove a javelin from his neck.

The fighting went on for what seemed like hours, before the Celtic left and centre collapsed. The Roman army then enveloped the Gaesatae attacking the right flank and they were cut down from all sides. Some tried to flee but there was no escape. Few of the Celtic army escaped to tell the tale of what happened to those who defied Roman order.

[johnhughthom]

Part two: Patavium

Dio looked down at Patavium from the camp in the hills to the north. "These are the people our parents tell us scary tales of, the people who sacked Rome and cheated us with weighted scales? By the Gods, I'm almost embarassed to be a Roman. Even the Greeks wouldn't fear these pathetic fools." Drusus looked up, "Have you forgotten Bononia already? They put up one hell of a scrap, we were lucky the man in charge was an idiot. Had they had a real leader we may have been in trouble." "That's the point," said Camillus, "Nobody has said they can't fight, they have no discipline. They have no respect for authority. No army can fight without discipline." Seven heads turned to look at Camillus, then at each other and they all laughed. "What?"

The legions had taken heavy losses in the battle at Bononia, Drusus men had only a few light wounds. Gaius Septimus Severus, son of a senator who should have been with the equites but wanted to fight on foot, had taken a spear through the foot but marched north at the same rate as the rest of the men. Dio, who had some medical training from a Celtic slave, had kept the wound clean and made sure it was carefully rebandaged each night. "What did the centurion say sir?" asked Justus Durus. "We attack tomorrow. We have a spy inside, he says they will come out." "Excellent."

The morning dawned, clear, bright and warm. The Gods always give us a lovely day for killing. Almost makes me wish I bothered praying to them." said Camillus. The devout Durus glared at him. "Well I thank the Gods you don't," said Dio, "No doubt you'd get into an argument with them and they'd strike us all dead." Laughter from the team, and a few more Hastati who were gathered nearby. Even Camillus found that one funny.

They marched down the hill toward the gates of the town and lined up ready for battle. Looking down the line Drusus could see the lines were noticeably thinner than they had been at Bononia, the rumours of desertions on the march toward the mountains were obviously true.

Drusus' men had a much better view of the early stages of the battle this time around, the skirmishing was right in front of them and they saw the Celtic cavalry cut down under hail after hail of javelin and sling bullet.

The thinned out ranks of the two legions meant that the Hastati were actually close enough to the front to take part in the skirmishes, they flung their pila over the heads of the Leves into the Celtic masses.

Suddenly the Leves started to run back past the Hastati, they could see the Celtic heavy cavalry approaching at a gallop. "Hold!" came the order.

"Forward!"The Hastati pushed on to attack the heavy cavalry, Durus spotted the chieftan and called out to Drusus. "In the middle, get him!" Seven swords rushed at the leader and his horse was cut down from under him. Florens sword impaled the chieftan to the ground through his shoulder, Camillus' sword took his head off said shoulder.

The Celtic cavalry fled at the loss of their leader, starting a panic that poured through the army. Thew townspeople locked the gates trapping the men between town and Roman army. Some attempted to surrender, other to climb the walls. All were cut down, by Roman or townsman on the walls. The townspeople swore an oath of loyalty to Rome and the legions moved south, the Ligurian tribes had been mounting raids into Roman territory and the Senate had demanded their subjugation.

Four months later:

Mediolanium was the largest town south of the Alps and north of Roman territory. As the legions marched into the city all of Italia was under Roman control, or that of tribes subject to Rome. An agreement with the Audui Gallic confederation had enabled the city to be turned over to a tribe allied to Rome. The legions spent a few weeks resting in the city after the campaign against the Ligurian tribes, they would then return to their homes. It was envisaged only one legion would be raised the next year, and those with six or more years consecutive service would be exempt from service. Of course in the event of a threat to Roman peace arising that would change. As it was all eight members of Drusus contubernium survived the Po Valley campaign and could look forward to at least one year away from the army.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Great stuff! Nice to have a foot soldier's view of the action instead of a general's, concentrating on one unit was a good idea. Limiting the camera shots to that unit's view works really well too.

[the man with no name]

Amazing story so far Johnhughthom. LIke titus said, I like how you set it in an 8 men squad kinda thing. Whats next? Dalmatia or Gual, or maybe Sicily? ing

[johnhughthom]

The Sicilian Conflict

Part One: Syracuse.

Four years of peace in the Republic following the Po Valley campaign saw Drusus and his men receive four years of freedom, the Senate only called up one legion in each of the four years and veterans from the campaign against the Celts were generally given exemption. Legio I based itself outside Mediolanium and a few punitive assaults against unruly tribes soon showed the residents of the region the Romes temper should not be tested. This period of peace was ended by the actions of a group of mercenaries in Sicily, they had taken the main city in the northeast of the island in a move similar to the capture of Rhegium which had embarrased Rome. The Punic enclave in the southwest accused the mercenaries of impounding their trading vessels and stealing the cargo. The situation escalated and a Punic army marched toward Messana and the Senate hurriedly debated this shift in the balance of power in the region. A legion was sent to Sicily with one of the Consuls, he negotiated with the mercenaries in the city and agreed to take the city under Roman protection. The Punic army moved on toward the city and rumours of a double cross reached the Consul, Punic agents were caught returning from Messana with papers showing collusion with the mercs. The Roman army marched into the city and slaughtered the garrison. Realising they had no hope against a full legion imbeded within the city the Punic force withdrew. No offensive moves had been made against the other by either nation, but a state of war was the result and the war would only end when one side had control of the island.

There was one other obstacle to either side taking control of the entire island, Syracuse. One of the most influential Greek cities in the Mediterranean, so long as she was independent the war would always be on a knife edge. A number of Punic attempts on the city were repulsed before Rome sent a second legion to the island. Legion I laid seige to the city and Legion II guarded the approach from Punic territory, the Roman fleet block all access to and from the port and the city slowly starved.

The call up of Legion II was when Drusus and his colleagues were drafted back into the army. Reporting for duty Drusus knew he would be returning as a Princeps, there was no guarantee he would keep his old position however, and he certainly didn't expect to have his old team back. As he approached the recruitment tents he saw a familiar face, Gaius Septimus Severus, son of a Senator and part of his old team awaited him. "Hey, Drusus. Good to see you, how you been?" "Oh, you know, miss killing barbarians. Life gets pretty boring here in Rome. You in with the Principes this time?" Severus looked shifty, "Yeah, the old man pulled a few strings behind my back. I've got a centurions commision. Get to select anybody I want for my century however, you're one of my decani and you got all your old team. Apart from me of course." Drusus smiled, "At least I know I've got men I can trust at my side. Err, Camillus?." Severus laughed, "Admit it, it wouldn't be the same without him."

They sailed from Ostia a few days later and landed in Messana, the gibbets where the Mamertines had been hung were still standing, a few bones bleached by the sun still hanging. No time to acclimatize, they marched out that same day and headed south in the shadow of the volcano and moved toward Syracuse. Legio I had already surrounded the city, they were relieved by the newcomers and moved west to guard against a Punic attack.

That had been two years ago, seiging a city like Syracuse was a totally different prospect to the Celtic hovels they had attacked in the Po valley. It had stores of food, and even the entire Roman navy blockading the port couldn't stop every ship attempting to resupply the beleaguered city. Two years was a long time however and the civilian populace as well as the garrison suffered horrendously, the shattered remnants of a once proud city eventually marched out in a show of defiance. Drusus watched the battle begin from a new position, in the centre of the lines even further back than before. The army had been placed on a hill however, which gave him a good view of the Syracusan forces as they approached.

As they watched the sallying army moved toward the Roman right flank. "That's were we would have been, we aren't going to see any action back here." complained Camillus. Drusus ignored him.

The entire Syracusan army were moving toward the Roman right, the Principes began edging in that direction. "Hold!" came the call from Severus.

As the enemy moved toward the skirmishers they began to get into pilum range. "Ready pila!"

The skirmishers moved back in the face of the Syracusan infantry. "Steady!" came the call. Loss of discipline in moving forward to fill the suddenly empty space in front of them could prove fatal.

The battle then moved back from the Roman lines as the cavalry engaged, the Principes stood with the rest of the infantry watching, awaiting the order to advance.

When the order to advance came it was only the Hastati ordered forward to mop up the remnants of the enemy infantry. The Roman cavalry had decimated their opponents and were now routing the rest of the defenders from the field, the Hastati moved to assist them with the rest of the legion ordered to hold position.

Soon the city surrendered and the rest of the army returned to camp. Not the day Drusus and his men had expected.

[Metaluis90]

EX-CELLENT

[johnhughthom]

I will try to update this in a few days, something odd happened which totally trashed the storyline I had planned so I need to start the campaign again to get to the same position...

[Andy1984]

Beautiful AAR

[Mulceber]

Love it, I'm definitely going to keep following this one.